Thinking About the Earth: Books and Media

FernGully: The Last Rainforest

As a child, I often watched this movie which made me realize just how horribly humans could treat the environment. Because I was young, I didn't really think about the environment all too much because I usually thought that wildlife was more in danger and needed care, but this movie showed me that our actions such as cutting down treats and contributing to pollution can have horrific effects.

Captain Planet and the Planeteers

I used to watch this tv show all the time as a little kid. For me, this show was a fun way to introduce me to the caring and passionate mentality we need when we approach environmental issues. Not only was the show entertaining as a cartoon, but it exposed me a variety of different world issues while inspiring me to take action about the problems that affect our natural world.

"Big Yellow Taxi" by Counting Crows

As a kid, I also listened to this song a lot when it came on the radio, but I never realized the full meaning of the lyrics until I got older. Once I was able to fully interpret the lyrics, I realized that this song was not only really catchy, but it conveyed a strong message about protecting and conserving the environment by describing the story about how a beautiful landscape was destroyed to create a parking lot to fuel human industry.

Wildlife Fact File

Though I did not have the whole collection, the Wildlife Fact File was a book that was given to me by my aunt. I loved the book because it had a plethora of information about different species of animals, but in the back of the book, I remember there was a section dedicated to the environmental and wildlife issues that affected our world such as acid rain, deforesting, and poaching. Since I would read this book over and over again, I thought about the environmental problems facing our world, and I hoped to find a way to fix them or help contribute to a solution.